Tonight is Joshua's fourth night paci free and I feel like I can speak better as to how he's doing with this big (for him...and us) life change. Overall he's doing really well, except that he asks for his paci before time to get in bed. "Ba ba???" he says as he looks in his crib and around his room. Also, after posting triumphantly that he didn't cry the first night we put him to bed without it, he's cried every time we've put him to bed since. Every. time. It's so hard for me to see him go from a happy face to crying before bedtime, especially since he was so happy to go to bed this time last week with his paci.
I remain encouraged, though, because his crying doesn't last long at all, and he sleeps as hard as ever through the night. So we will all continue to endure about 10 minutes of displeasure in effort to break this habit. The other good news is that during the day he could care less.
If I had the past year to do over again, I wonder if I would have done anything differently. I'm not sure if I would. Developmentally, he changed at some point from using a paci as a means to satisfy his sucking reflex to actually speaking of his paci endearingly as though it were a teddy bear or something. I didn't help matters with telling him to say "bye bye" paci (hence the name "ba ba").
But the past is behind, and for now, I find comfort in thinking about how glad I will be in a couple of months for enduring the crying today. I mean, think how hard this would be if he were in a toddler bed and could get out of bed crying for his paci. Well, at least that's how I comfort myself. I can't stand him crying.
Hopefully one day soon he will look forward to getting into his cozy bed again.
as always, I love catching up on your blog; I was behind a few posts. I had to comment to say, that Ada is 6, and she gave up her paci at 2, and it remains one of the bigger deals in her life ;) Isn't it crazy the things that become emotionally hard on us after becoming mom!!!:) I cried with her, her first night. Of course, she was older than Joshua, so she was more vocal, and through her tears, she kept saying, "but mommy, paci is my best friend!!" and she really meant it ;) So, I just lay in bed and cried with her, but luckily it only took a few nights. Anyway, just wanted to tell you I empathize. Those pacis are wonderful when they are babies and we all need sleep, but it is so hard to take them away!
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